Avoiding Food Fights with Your Kids

Step 3: Help Build Healthful Food Choices

Children have lots of opportunities to make decisions about the foods they eat. You can help prepare your child to make healthful decisions and help them build eating skills to use for a lifetime.

Start by talking about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of foods. Compare a hamburger made of high–fat beef to a low–fat veggie burger.

Teach kids how to politely ask for healthy foods or decline others. Educate your children about food and cooking and the benefits of a healthy plant–based diet.

School–aged children eat many meals away from home. During this time, your children may realize that some friends do not eat quite so healthfully as they do. Talk to your kids about why your family eats as it does and encourage them to value these healthy practices.

Here are more tips on ways to encourage your child to eat healthy at school.